


go home people (the party's not over)

by bloodredcherries



Series: bouquet of clumsy words (a simple melody) [2]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Minor Alice Cooper/FP Jones II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 13:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16476635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodredcherries/pseuds/bloodredcherries
Summary: “It was your dad’s idea,” Betty chirped. “He told my mom that if people were going to stare at us she may as well make it worth her while.” Jughead bit back a sigh. “And she said ‘like what, throw a party’? And he said ‘sure, Alice, the perfect holiday is coming up’.”





	go home people (the party's not over)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [boywonder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/boywonder/gifts).



It seemed as if everyone that Jughead Jones had the misfortune of knowing had received an invitation to the Halloween Soiree, and the thought of going to a ‘spooktactular’ party at the Coopers’ Elm Street home seemed to be viewed as a good source of high school conversation. 

 

He hadn’t celebrated Halloween since he had been a kid, and had gone trick-or-treating with Betty and Archie, sometimes accompanied by Polly, and by various constellations of parents. His parents had never chaperoned them together. Neither had Betty’s father. He remembered his father chaperoning them once -- he had been sober, Mr. Cooper had refused to go with Alice and the kids, and his father had agreed to join them, despite the lack of a costume -- but only once, and he had no delusions that this new love for Halloween was anything more than wanting to humor his new girlfriend. 

 

Jughead thought that the only thing Halloween was good for was the after-day-candy-sales that took place on November 1st. 

 

“This is  _ beyond _ macabre,” Jughead Jones announced, as he glanced down at the invitation that Betty had handed him, her blonde ponytail bouncing as she did. “Your presence is requested at a Halloween soiree at the former residence of Riverdale’s own serial killer, hosted by Alice and Elizabeth Cooper,” he read, out loud, wondering what had possessed either of the women to decide to do this. “You’re really trying to cash in on what your father did?”   
  


“It was your dad’s idea,” Betty chirped. “He told my mom that if people were going to stare at us she may as well make it worth her while.” Jughead bit back a sigh. “And she said ‘like what, throw a party’? And he said ‘sure, Alice, the perfect holiday is coming up’.” 

 

Alice Cooper and FP Jones coming forward about their relationship had been the least traumatic in the series of developments that had come since he had almost died at the hands of the Ghoulies, Betty’s father had been revealed to be the world’s worst serial killer, and Archie Andrews had gotten arrested on accusations of murder. To say that the summer had been a trying one had been putting it mildly. It seemed that over the course of the three short (yet unbelievably long) months, his entire life had been torn asunder. Okay, maybe he was being slightly dramatic. He had a feeling that things could have been entirely worse. 

 

“And I am expected to be here?” Jughead asked. 

 

“Well, duh,” she replied, wrapping her arms around him. “What else would you do during the party? Sulk in your room?”

 

That had been another one of the changes. Alice, you see, couldn’t stay in the Cooper house alone anymore, and with a bat of her lashes (and, okay, the majority of the trailer park going up in flames, though Jughead  _ did _ note that  _ their _ trailer was still there), the older woman had convinced FP that living together would be what was best  _ for the children _ . Did FP really want poor Elizabeth, whose father had tried to groom her into being a serial killer, and whose sister had tried to get her and her mother to join a cult, worried about Jughead’s safety  _ on top _ of it all? And did he  _ really _ want to have little Forsythia growing up in a raging inferno? (Jughead’s mother had been busted running an illegal chop shop  _ and _ an underage drug dealing enterprise when Penny Peabody had squealed on her after she’d been picked up by the Greendale police, which suddenly made FP a candidate for parent of the year.) FP, whether it was out of a desire to spare Alice the fact that he knew  _ she _ wanted him living there, or because he thought there was some truth about the perks of raising children on the Northside, had taken her up on her offer. 

 

And the offer from Fred about being his foreman again. 

 

“I just think that…” He trailed off. “Okay, fine,” he agreed, sure he was going to regret this. “Tell me what you wear to a ‘soiree’.” 

 

Penny Peabody’s arrest had been the catalyst for change in the town, though he was certain that the Greendale policeman who had pulled her over for the busted taillight hadn’t intended to do anything more than make his quota for the end of the month on traffic tickets. It was a pity for him that the blonde wasn’t just a pretty face to flirt with. Penny, for all her talk, had folded like a stack of cards, and started incriminating everyone that had been  _ remotely _ connected to her drug running enterprise, starting with Jughead’s mother and ending with Veronica’s father, the latter of whom was found to be in violation of his parole. Sheriff Minetta had been stripped of his position, and Hermione Lodge’s Mayoral position was in jeopardy. 

 

With Hiram back in prison, the arresting Sheriff under investigation, and a series of scathing articles deriding the ‘unlawful imprisonment of the youths of New York State’, like magic, Archie’s conviction had been vacated, and he had been summarily sent back to Riverdale, where Jughead had been quick to welcome his new neighbor back with open arms. Living with his girlfriend was fine, but...well...sometimes seeing her mother and his father together was too much for him. He was glad that his father was happy, of course, and it was nice that Alice wasn’t in that creepy cult of Polly’s, but the twosome seemed intent on making up for lost time, which...tended to include a horrifying amount of  _ making out _ in areas of the home that Jughead wished were solely PG. 

 

JB seemed to be flourishing though, so he supposed that was the important thing. And living with him  _ did _ make Betty happy. 

 

So, if this morbid suggestion of his father’s made Alice and Betty feel better about their situation, he would...go along with it. He still didn’t understand why his father kept forbidding him to write that novelization of the Black Hood. But, maybe a party would be just what people needed to relax after the horrible year they’d had. 

 

He tuned in late to whatever Betty was saying. “...anyways, as the reigning King and Queen, we should go as a matching set.” 

 

“Uh?”

 

She clapped her hands together. “Well, obviously we’re the reigning King and Queen of the Serpents,” she squealed. “You asked me to be your Queen, and your dad said that he was retiring from gang life.”

 

“I think that the  _ Serpents _ have retired from gang life,” he suggested gently. “Haven’t you noticed?” 

 

Betty pouted. “I still think that we should go as a pair!” 

 

“If going as a pair makes you happy,” he said after a moment. “We can go as a pair.” 

  
  
  



End file.
